Hugh White, BA(Hons) (Melbourne), BPhil(Oxon)
Professor of Strategic Studies and Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre; Associate Dean (Research), The ANU College of Asia and the Pacific; Visiting Fellow, Lowy Institute for International Policy

Email: hugh.white@anu.edu.au

Hugh White is Professor of Strategic Studies and Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Lowy Institute for International Policy. His work focuses primarily on Australian strategic and defence policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, and global strategic affairs especially as they influence Australia and the Asia-Pacific. He has served as an intelligence analyst with the Office of National Assessments, as a journalist with the Sydney Morning Herald, as a senior adviser on the staffs of Defence Minister Kim Beazley and Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and as a senior official in the Department of Defence, where from 1995 to 2000 he was Deputy Secretary for Strategy and Intelligence, and as the first Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI). In the 1970s he studied philosophy at Melbourne and Oxford Universities.

Research Interests

Australian strategic and defence policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, global strategic affairs.

Key Publications

• (forthcoming), 'Four Decades of the Defence of Australia: Reflections on Australian Defence Policy over the past 40 years', in (eds) Huisken and Thatcher, History as Policy: Framing the debate on the future of Australia's defence policy, ANU E Press and the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Australian National University, 2007.
• Beyond the Defence of Australia: finding a new balance in Australia's defence policy, Lowy Institute for International Policy, Sydney, 2006.
• 'The New Australia-Indonesia Strategic Relationship - A Note of Caution', in (ed.) John Monfries, Different Societies, Shared Futures: Australia, Indonesia and the Region, Institute of South East Asian Studies, Singapore, 2006, pp. 41-53.
• 'Old, New or Both? Australia's Security at the Start of the New Century', in (eds) McDougall and Shearman, Australian Security After 9/11, Ashgate, London, 2006 pp. 13-28.
• 'Studying Strategy Today', in (eds) Ayson and Ball, Strategy and Security in the Asia-Pacific, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2006, pp. 3-10.
• Defence Chapter, in (eds) Cotton and Ravenhill, Trading on Alliances: Australia in World Affairs 2001-2005, OUP, Melbourne, 2006.
• 'The Ethics of Invasion: Jus ad Bellum and Iraq', in (eds) Coady and O'Keefe, Righteous Violence: The Ethics and Politics of Military Intervention, MUP, Melbourne, 2005, pp. 32-50.
• 'Australian Strategic Policy', in (eds), Tellis and Wills, Strategic Asia 2005-06: Military Modernisation in an Era of Uncertainty, NBR, Seattle, 2005 pp. 305-331.
• (as co-author) Strengthening Our Neighbour: Australia and the Future of Papua New Guinea, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, 2004.

Career Highlights

1985-1991 Senior Adviser to Defence Minister and Prime Minister; 1995-2000 Deputy Secretary for Strategy, Department of Defence; 2001-2004 Director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.